How Ananda became enlightened?

Ananda was the only one left at the time of the first council of Buddha’s own disciples who didn’t become an arahant. He was Buddha’s attendant. He heard every word that Buddha taught, and memorized them all, but he didn’t meditate much because he was too busy.

Some time after Buddha’s death, there was a meeting of all the arahants, but since Ananda wasn’t an arahant he couldn’t go. So he kept meditating, trying at the last minute to become enlightened, and it got to be midnight, 2, 3 o’clock in the morning of the first council of Buddhist arahants, but still he couldn’t make it, even though he was the repository of all of Buddha’s words. All the other arahants wanted him to go, but he couldn’t since he wasn’t an arahant.

Finally it got to be 3:45 in the morning, 15 minutes before the 4:00 wakeup call. Finally, Ananda just gave up and said, “Oh ********, I’m not an arahant.” Then he got enlightened, because he saw things as they were. It was the end of the struggle. No more trying to become an arahant, and he became an arahant.

Many Buddhist traditions teach this story. That says something that is being yourself, rather than to mere doing and self-improvement. It expresses clear vision, seeing things just as they are, rather than as we’d like them to be. It is a lovely, timeless story.